lost or what?

The long way back

Train delays cause dinner to be found in Hachioji

Now for the trials and tribulations of getting from Lake Okutama back to Kanda (Tokyo). This update will pleaes train nerds and test the geography experts of the greater Tokyo area.
Leaving the lake was fine, get on the bus, ride back to Okutama station. It was too late to take the return 10km hike back as it was getting dark up in the mountains. The first train was fine, that went from Okutama to Ome, stopping all stations but they do that during the week.
Then the fun started.

My next train was supposed to go from Ome to Tachakawa, which takes about 30 minutes, changing at Tachakawa for the Chuo rapid line back to Kanda. If you have been to Tokyo you are probably familiar with the Chuo rapid line, its the one that cuts through the middle from Tokyo to Shinjuku.

Anyway, the train would not depart Ome. All services were cancelled between Ome and Tachakawa, fatality.
Also in a separate incident, all services were cancelled on the Chuo Rapid line between Tachakawa and and Tokyo due to another fatality!
The two lines I needed to use both had all services cancelled. At Ome where I was now there was not much to do except wait, eventually the destination of the train I sat on started updating to stations prior to Tachakawa. We all watched as it changed back and forth multiple times until eventually they settled on Haijima (a couple of stops before Tachakawa) and we set off! Slowly. Then we stopped. For a long time. Then we went maybe 5 metres, stopped again. There were lots of announcements in Japanese, but they didnt really seem to be helping anyone, I suspect they were 'sorry I have no idea when we can go'.

After an hour, we got to Haijima, great, now what? Time to study google for a while and decide where I could go from the reasonably well connected station. My two choices were either end of the Hachiko line, which were Kawagoe (where I was yesterday) or Hachioji, which I thought was Kichioji where I went last year. I settled on Hachioji thinking it was a different place entirely.
The train to Hachioji also stopped inexplicably a few times but it got me there. I had decided to have my dinner here, and just return straight to my hotel after that, assuming the services on the Chuo line had since resumed. My detour had got me past Tachakawa where most of the drama seemed to be.

So now I am wandering around Hachioji thinking its Kichioji, questioning my sanity because it was not as I remembered it from a year ago. And of course it wasnt, it was not the same place at all. Hachioji is 20km west of Kichioji. No wonder it was damn cold, its at the foot of the mountains.
Because I was still returning from my hiking I was in hiking clothes including shorts. But since I was in a new place I decided I had better wander around in the 9 degrees weather and take a few photos.

Now to check on the Chuo rapid line, the boards showed trains were coming. Hooray! I stood on the platform, there were a lot of people, more than there should be for a train that comes every 5 minutes or so. It didnt come. But wait!
A limited express liner came, and my 3 day train pass is valid on that, there was almost no one on it, so I went from the end of the line of people waiting for the normal train straight into a luxury seat all the way back to Shinjuku only stopping once in between (at Kichioji!). From Shinjuku I could get a Chuo rapid line back to Kanda, this section of the track had now resumed services.

WHO IS CONFUSED????